Auto giants make U-turn

       The "Big Three" US automakers - Ford,General Motors and Chrysler - have committed to investing an additional 31 billion baht in Thailand in anticipation of a local economic recovery,Thai policymakers say.
       "Ford, General Motors Corp and Chrysler Group have expressed interest to expand their current investments by more than 10 billion baht each in Thailand," said Kiat Sittheeamorn, head of the Thailand Trade Representative office via a video conference from the United States."And US soft-drink giant CocaCola Co has also pledged to increase its local investment by an additional one billion baht."
       Cargill, a major US producer of food,agricultural and industrial products, and services, wants to form ventures with Thai partners to set up a regional food distribution centre and warehouses for agricultural products. The firm would not disclose its proposed investment budget.
       Mr Kiat and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva have been meeting with leading US companies and institutional investors over the past two days to promote the Thai economy.
       Mr Abhisit is attending the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Yesterday he attended a forum in New York hosted by the Thai Board of Investment.
       The premier said yesterday that apart from the US automakers, Coca Cola and Cargill, several other US companies planned to increase their investments in Thailand. Some have expressed interest in infrastructure investment under the "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength" scheme. The government will invest about US$45 billion over the next three years to strengthen the Thai economy and to improve the country's competitiveness.
       The programme will focus on agriculture, education, health care and mass-transit projects and will create at least 1.5 million jobs, according to the government.
       "I am confident that the Thai economy will return to growth in the fourth quarter, with the whole year's gross domestic product contracting by 3% to 3.5% this year," said Mr Abhisit.
       He said the Thai economy would undergo a V-shaped recovery.
       "The Thai economy is definitely moving up, and there is yet no clear sign whether it will move in the 'W' shape,"said Mr Abhisit.
       In a related development, Mr Abhisit said it was still not clear when stalled talks on a free trade agreement with the US would resume.
       "The US has yet to send a signal about resuming the talks, but we prefer the talks should rather be developed on the multilateral level under the World Trade Organisation," he said.